Moscow is already the financial hub for the former Soviet territories, but formidable legislative and infrastructure hurdles stand in the way of its aspirations to become a global IFC. Now the city and the Russian state are striving very seriously to address these issues, says Yuri Roslyak.
The Banker's ranking of international financial centres is based not simply on the size of the financial services industry in each location, but focuses instead on the level of international business and the value offered to institutions seeking to expand their overseas operations.
George Papaconstantinou, Greek finance ministerThings look very different for Greece compared to a year ago. A new government intent on change, and the help of the IMF, has brought the country back from the brink of bankruptcy - and served as a wake-up call for the rest of Europe in the process
The bank rescue has been a success. The global bailout remains a work in progress, but with the aid of government equity injections, special liquidity programmes, debt guarantees and asset protection schemes, most systemically important banks have remained open for business and the banking system has survived.
Agricultural Bank of China could well achieve a record IPO despite a modest market debutAgricultural Bank of China's initial public offering (IPO) - which the bank hopes will be the world's largest - has raised $19.3bn so far from investors from its listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai. If the bank exercises its overallotment options, this would take it over the $22bn mark, just above fellow Chinese bank ICBC's listing in 2006, which is the world's largest IPO to date.
With the onset of the financial crisis, The Banker has focused much more of its Top 1000 data gathering on asset quality. This year, a total of 179 banks supplied comprehensive data on their levels of impaired assets, compared with 142 last year. While this still accounts for only 18% of total banks in the Top 1000, it is sufficient to begin to understand global trends in asset quality.